George Gilmore & The Giblets

George Gilmore, Ed Hamell
23rd St, NYC

Last week, I had to go into Manhattan so my dentist could moan at me about bone loss round me molars. Since it was the first Tuesday of the month, I decided to cheer myself up by meeting up with my good pal Eric Danville and checking out George Gilmore & The Giblets' regular monthly stint at The Lakeside Lounge, my favourite watering hole on the Lower East Side. The Lakeside is known mainly for having the best jukebox in the city, exquisitely curated by co-owners, Jim 'The Hound' Marshall & Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel, who was in The Del-Lords, and is now in The Yayhoos. You can get a decent pint, a generous shot and some Roky Erickson or The Real Kids from whoever is behind the bar, which can sometimes be the luscious Leslie Day, who played guitar in The Prissteens, the city's last great, and vastly under appreciated, (mostly) girl-group. Anyway, that night, none of them were around, but George soon came early and we caught up. Back in the day, he used to bartend at Arlene's Grocery as well as the Lakeside, which I deemed my 'local' ever since Billy's Topless closed. George was a first-class host and knew how to mix a Jack & Coke better than everyone. Like in a pint glass. It was the kind of place one could do a bag of mushrooms at the bar with a colleague and spend the night laughing at everything. Apparently. We spoke about the Giblets and I suggested they should consider playing on Long Island with the Blaggards or the Lone Sharks, the two best acts we have out here. George pointed out that Sharks' sax-ist, Paul Scher, moonlights as a Giblet, so maybe there's hope for a double-bill sometime. Eric and I grabbed another beer and moved into the lounge...
These days, there's not too many bands pepper their sets with tunes by Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Jimmy McCracklin, Otis Rush, Conway Twitty and Carl Perkins but that should tell you they got good taste. Their originals can sound like Brinsley Schwarz or Graham Parker sometimes and, as George said about one song, "like a twisted Skip James". Special guest, 'Thirsty' Dave Hanson from The Western Caravan's sang on 'It's Only Make Believe' and 'Nadine' and boy, does he have a great voice! So, a most enjoyable night was had by all. Mark it down...the first Tuesday in every month - Giblets at the Lakeside.